La Mirada’s baseball, softball seasons come to early end
La Mirada’s Cambria Martinez (33) gets caught going back to second base by Roosevelt second baseman Jordan Elies (88) in the CIF-SS Division 1 second round game at La Mirada High School on Tuesday. Roosevelt defeated La Mirada 3-0. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
NORWALK - With the CIF-Southern Section baseball and softball playoffs in full swing heading into the final week, only one local team remains alive (as of press time Wednesday May 11).
The Norwalk girls softball team shutout visiting Montclair, Tuesday (May 10), 7-0, in a second round game and advanced to the quarterfinals Thursday, May 12 (Results not available).
Norwalk (20-7) was scheduled to face El Toro (18-9) in the quarterfinals.
Falling in the second round was both the La Mirada baseball and softball teams.
The Matadores baseball team was shutout by Harvard-Westlake, 9-0, and softball was also blanked, 3-0, by Roosevelt.
Harvard-Westlake (22-7-1) moves on to the quarterfinals and will face JSerra Catholic (20-10), while Roosevelt (24-3) will host Pacifica (26-4) also in a quarterfinal game.
Both La Mirada teams ended with nearly the same records. Baseball was 22-7-1 and won the Suburban with a perfect 8-0 record. Softball was 22-7 and was also Suburban League champs at 8-0.
The Lady Matadores had a close battle in their second-round game, as they only trailed, 1-0, until the seventh inning to visiting Roosevelt. The Mustangs added two insurance runs for the 3-0 lead.
“I talked to the girls after the game and we figured before the season we would hope to get 16 or 17 wins,” La Mirada Softball coach Brent Tuttle said. “In ’21 we graduated six starters. Anytime you win 20 games, it’s a huge accomplishment.” The Matadores did just that this past season with their 22 wins.
“This team practiced hard and made the games fun,” Tuttle added. “There were a lot of individual battles and practice was awesome to watch.
“We left a lot of girls on base (7). It’s the little things that hurt us. The girls fought hard. (Roosevelt) was a good team that was in the finals last year.”
Roosevelt lost, 3-2, to Esperanza in the CIF D1 title game.
The Matadores had a chance to take the first lead of the game with a runner (Janis Espinoza) on third in the first inning. An out ended the inning. Another runner, designated player Angelyna Conde, was left at third after she opened the second with a double to left and moved to third on an infield out.
Roosevelt scored a run in the third on a run-scoring single by Kaylynn Jones, who drove in second baseman Jordan Elies for the 1-0 lead.
That stood up until the seventh inning for the Mustangs.
La Mirada had a chance to again tie the game in the sixth inning after catcher Rebecca Eckart opened with a double down the left field line.
After Conde flew out to center for the first out, the pinch runner was tagged out when she broke for third on a grounder by pitcher Amanda Urbina.
Roosevelt scored two more runs in the top of the seventh and La Mirada failed to score in the bottom of the inning.
La Mirada, which will lose 11 seniors off of this years’ team actually was hitting the Roosevelt pitcher hard, but just not in the right spots throughout the game.
Highlighting the season, the Matadores were 6-6 at one point, but reeled off 17 straight wins until the loss to Roosevelt and also wrapped up its third consecutive Suburban League title this year.
Seven of those seniors who have committed to play are: Brynn
Fukumoto, Hawaii Hilo; Peyton Powers, Lake Erie College (Ohio); Amanda Urbina, Mt. SAC; Grace Archuleta, Mt. SAC; Rylee Martinez, Penn State Harrisburg; Grace Giesler, New England College (New Hampshire) and Janis Espinoza, who is still weighing her options with a few interested DI colleges.
In the past few years, with all of the graduates, we will have 16 players playing college ball,” Tuttle said. “The nice part of that is they are all home-grown kids. We’re in a little hotbed of players. It’s a good area of softball.”
La Mirada’s Rudy Gonzales (11) fields the ball to try and get the Harvard-Westlake runner at home plate in the CIF-SS Division 1 second round game at La Mirada High School on Tuesday. Roosevelt defeated La Mirada 3-0. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
LM Baseball falls to Harvard-Westlake
The Wolverines scored early with four runs in the first inning and two more the next inning for the 6-0 lead.
Senior left-hander Avery Thau pitched all seven innings and scattered three hits and struck out three La Mirada batters.
Freshman Paul Dominguez, who also pitched an inning, led the team with two hits and junior Aidan Haller had the other hit for the Matadores.
Senior pitcher Ryan Coppock threw five innings and struck out six.
Norwalk softball blanks Montclair
The Lancers (20-7) blanked Montclair, 7-0, and have won nine of their last 11 games. They
Norwalk finished in second in the Suburban League tied with Mayfair with 5-3 records.